NEW DELHI: India has dispatched a special commando unit to Pakistan to protect its top diplomats at the Indian embassy there, a report said Tuesday.

The batch of 16 troopers are from the paramilitary Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which is tasked with guarding key government offices and iconic monuments like the world famous monument, the Taj Mahal, according to AFP.

The unit ‘will perform security duties after assessing the situation there,’ CISF Director General N R Das was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency.

New Delhi has blamed the siege on the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Both LeT and Pakistan have denied any involvement but Islamabad admitted last month for the first time that the strikes were partly planned on its soil.

A suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul in July killed scores of people including two Indian diplomats and two Indian guards. India later blamed the attack on ‘elements’ in Pakistan.

Last year, New Delhi asked Islamabad to increase security for its top diplomat in Pakistan after an Indian intelligence assessment warned of a heightened threat to the official.

The team includes few drivers who were trained in VIP security drills.

Mr. Das said the security of the Indian Embassy was looked after by the Pakistan government. The actual role of the CISF commandos would be finalised after an assessment report was prepared. Some of the members of the team would also perform technical support duties.

Infiltrators from Pakistan are making one of the most organised and concerted bids since the Kargil war to cross the LoC and enter Jammu & Kashmir.

The army is locked in encounters with heavily armed infiltrators at eight locations along the LoC. As many as 400 militants are reportedly waiting to cross over from Pakistan and target the Lok Sabha elections.

Intense gunbattles are on in Uri, Baramulla, Kupwara, Lolab, Kangan, Wusan, Hafruda forests and Gurez. Sources said that 20 to 40 militants may have managed to sneak in.

Heavy fighting in GurezThe army has air dropped para-commandos into the cordoned off forests of Gurez to flush out suspected Taliban militants. A fierce encounter is on.

The army has cordoned off around 60 square kilometres of the Gurez forests adjoining the LoC at Hafruda. The terrorists have probably come in from several pockets in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

Sources told Headlines Today that radio intercepts between two Lashkar-e-Toiba men talking to a third one led to the suspicion that these militants belong to the Taliban. The militants were helped by the Lashkar and the ISI to cross the LoC.

Taliban or Jaish?J&K Democratic Liberation Front chairman Hashim Qureshi has claimed that the militants who crossed the LoC are either from the Jaish-e-Mohammad or the Lashkar.

He said the possibility of infiltration by the Taliban, however, couldn't be ruled out in the future.

Infiltration on the riseThe CRPF has figures to show that infiltration from Pakistan has increased in the past two weeks.

Since March 22, at least 22 militants have been gunned down by the army. Ten jawans and two army officers have been killed in the operation. In Kupwara, the army had earlier carried out a six-day offensive in March. According to the army, many of the militants were of Afghan origin.

Infiltration pattern different this yearInfiltration along the LoC always peaks as the summer approaches. But this time, the security forces have been taken aback by the sheer intensity of the bids.

This year, infiltration attempts were made much before the snow in the mountain passes started to melt. Also, simultaneous infiltration bids were made in an attempt to engage the security forces along different fronts.

While infiltration bids were usually made in small batches earlier, the militants are now trying to cross over in larger groups of 20 or 30.

The emerging scenario from Jammu and Kashmir indicates that the encounters in the north are not mere counter-insurgency rather they form part of a larger conventional conflict between India and Pakistan.

Concentrated groups, comprising hundreds of combatants, are reportedly holding ground and battling the Indian Army in eight separate locations in Kashmir Valley. The areas are Uri, Baramula, Kupwara, Lolab, Kangan, Wusan, Hafruda Forest and Gurez sector.

The Army is no longer up against just men whose best weapon is hit and run, because this is no longer just a low-intensity conflict. Rather the army is exchanging fire with a new enemy -- the conventionally trained terrorist.

Built to hold ground and fight back like a soldier, to capture territory and move forward, they're even fighting Indian para commandos and managing to inflict damage.

The militants may not be formally commissioned soldiers of the Pakistan Army, but they're definitely close. The encounters in the Valley are the result of the most organised and concerted intrusions into the state since Kargil. Clearly it indicates that the situation is more like war.

This is getting messy day by day our SF is facing lot of casualties as from other side of border they are trying to deflect the yahoos from other parts towards Kashmir. Let's see how the situation evolves

That statement was to give a perspective as to why they would hate or not like one another. It all boils down to ethnicity and tribal traditions of the Pakhtuns. They would never work with LeT (on Kashmir) except for the cause of establishment of Islamic caliphate.

That statement was to give a perspective as to why they would hate or not like one another. It all boils down to ethnicity and tribal traditions of the Pakhtuns. They would never work with LeT (on Kashmir) except for the cause of establishment of Islamic caliphate.

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There is a long history of cooperation between the Taliban and the Kashmir groups.

Flint, the only connecting link between LeT and Taliban is ISI. Their aims and goals are completely different. LeT, when established was solely focussed on liberating Kashmir while Taliban is bent upon establishing Sharia in Afghanistan and Pakistan and finally a Islamic caliphate. There might be some cross-talk or collaboration between the two organizations but might have been at the behest of ISI not independently.

Both the organizations have same ideology, that is Islamization of other lands, but they have different aims and goals as of now and both are supported/controlled by ISI. In future, I don't know, they might collaborate or merge, who knows.

You have to make a distinction here. What will LeT do, when Taliban enters Lahore or Karachi, will it fight Taliban or co-operate with Taliban?. LeT has never indulged in anti-Pakistani activities while Taliban has gone out of hand and now indulging in anti-Pakistani activities. Only time will tell, if they both are same or different.

Daredevil please read the articles that I posted thoroughly. There are several prominent examples of Direct Cooperation between Kashmiri outfits and Afghanistan based ones.

I'll just copy and paste some stuff there:

India’s National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan said on August 11, 2006, that the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba is part of the "al Qaeda compact" and is "as big as and omnipotent" as the international terror network.

Most of the JEM’s cadre and material resources have been drawn from the militant groups Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami (HUJI) and the Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HUM). The JEM had close ties to Afghan Arabs and the Taliban. Usama Bin Ladin is suspected of giving funding to the JEM. The JEM also collects funds through donation requests in magazines and pamphlets. In anticipation of asset seizures by the Pakistani Government, the JEM withdrew funds from bank accounts and invested in legal businesses, such as commodity trading, real estate, and production of consumer goods.

The HuM was originally formed in 1985, to participate in the Jehad against Soviet forces protecting the Communist regime in Afghanistan. It was a formed by a group that walked out of another jehadi group, the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI). With the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, the outfit turned its attention to J&K, where terrorist violence had been unleashed by Pakistan supported outfits in 1988.